Fabricating Microfluidic Devices for Modeling Microvasculature

Microfluidic devices are tools used to study cell behaviors and interactions with their microenvironments. Typical in vitro models, like 2D-culture dishes, insufficiently capture the complex structure of the extracellular matrix, whereas in vivo models like animal testing make it difficult to control experimental conditions. A microfluidic device is a small chip that permits 3D cell cultures while still allowing control over desired variables, such as flow rate and growth factor concentrations in the cell media. Although there are commercially available devices, these options normally lack design variability and are costly. Therefore, there is a need in the lab for a method to design and fabricate personalized chips for our specific applications. My project is to investigate existing protocols and formulate a procedure for producing microfluidic devices in our lab. The main fabrication method is lithography, which involves printing a design onto a silicon wafer and using it to mold several chips. Most current protocols leave the photoresist, or the “ink,” on the wafers when molding (Scott & Ali, 2021); instead, we physically etched our designs into the wafer to more economically achieve the feature depths needed for our lab’s application. By testing different elements, such as etching and sterilization, we hope to find the most effective method for promoting blood vessel formation in these chips. If perfected, our lab can readily fabricate its own chips for experimental use to advance our current in vitro models and improve the quality of our experiments.